Maria Giannacopoulos

I am a Greek-Australian academic born and raised on Gadigal land and recognised internationally for pioneering grounded theoretical approaches for understanding law's relationship to colonial power and its expanding carcerality.  With Greek as my mother tongue, I formed an early interest in the politics of languages, meanings and cultures. Combined with a strong interest in and commitment to racial justice, I studied Law and Literature as a first in family student and then went on to complete a PhD in Cultural Studies. My doctoral thesis critically examined the judgements of Mabo and Tampa and revealed the coloniality of Australian law. 

As a leading scholar in decolonising approaches to law and criminology, I receive regular invitations to publish and speak about (colonial) law's impact upon Indigenous, refugee, asylum seeker and refugee communities.  I am co-editor of 'Law, Love and Decolonization', a special issue of Globalizations, with the world's leading decolonial criminologist Professor Biko Agozino.

Prior to joining UNSW Law and Justice, I taught law, socio-legal studies and criminology at Flinders University on Kaurna Country for over a decade.  As recipient of the 2020 Vice Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching I was recognised as a leading research-led educator working to decolonise the discipline of criminology by addressing global questions of Indigenous and racial justice.